Problems with the lady I am working for at the moment

Dakota makes a really good point there. It can be common for people to stay in unhealthy environments because they feel like they are "needed" there or are somehow performing a role that only they can achieve. I've been there myself.

It feels very nice to be "important" or like a mentor, but usually that is a narrative. You do mention that you give your time to your boss willingly and without pay, so perhaps you stay because you want to feel needed even though you can see it is not really a good place for you?
 
Seems to me that you are both free to move on and that might be the best solution. It is first and foremost a professional work relationship which you seem to find draining because of her behavior sometimes and because no clear borders seem to exist between private and professional. I think you should focus more on the business/professional aspect of it and if you find yourself not happy there, and you see that it crosses that border I think it is reasonable to just search for another job/boss and move on.

Now the other thing is that nearly every time in my life there was no strict border between private and working. I always used to work with and for friends, or friends of friends, a long time in groups (or collectives as it was called at that time), never in the center of society but partly in avantgarde areas or even social surroundings.

That might be a big clue right there. Frankly speaking, it might be a good idea to take a look at that pattern and how it might have fueled the current situation and others in your life.
 
Dear all,

today - right after taking a snow-bath - I feel that I have solved the problem - at least in a way I can go on working with her.
And again I would like to thank for the advice to post my story here and for all the comments I got. During the last two weeks I was very hard thinking about was was said to me and what could be behind all that. I will come to some statements later.

First of all I would like to tell how the situation went further on. About 2 weeks days ago I had to visit her at home because I had some letter to pick up. I went there with a grumbling stomach not knowing what would happen (I also felt unsure about traveling because of the new restrictions that came out at that time). It was a little bit stressful, her ex-husband persuaded me to have some coffee (he really does an excellent one!) so I spent some time there, talking and discussing this and that.

(Again there was a statement that hurt me: We were talking about the elder people that now are vaccinated and obviously get killed. I told her that I was very happy that my mother (she is now dead) lived such a long time, seeing her great grandchildren and that the great grandchildren could see her great grandmother, how helpful it might be for their live. She disagreed and said it would not have made a difference in her life whether she had seen her grandmother or not. Today I don't see a problem with this but at that time I was a little bit shocked.)

We did not make any arrangements, So when I left the situation was for me: "Wait and see". And I think this was a good choice.

About 10 days ago she called me and asked me to help her rearranging and cleaning up the shop. It all went well, neither of us talked about the past and we got along in a normal professional working atmosphere, which I think will last.
I will not get involved with her emotional outbreaks (at least that is what I hope I learned). The shop will be opened only once a week, which is very helpful to keep an emotional distance! The other things that I have to do I can do at home or go to the shop if I need some material- but without the necessity to meet her regularly or we meet if necessary.

Seeing i from the outside this was an emotional clash, something that happens when people start working together in teams (even if there are only 2 persons). The rule is: forming, storming, norming, performing and we obviously had the storming phase and now are moving on to norming and performing . . .
Of course storming only works if your "weak" points are triggered.

Also I think my behaviour has something to do with accepting peoples free will. I am not to judge ones other peoples opinions. I only have to try to get along with their behavior and take care of myself.

My thoughts to that problem are not finished, because there are some postings I want to answer, too, but meanwhile I wanted to let you know that I've scratched the curve - as wie in German say: "Ich habe die Kurve gekratzt", meaning that I can go along with her in a normal way without getting upset.

And as a result I am not so much interested in the whole shop and project any more, I merely see it as a job that has to be done - which is certainly a helpful point of view . . .

Many thanks again!!!! 🥰 🌸🥰:-D
 
Encouraged by the advice I got at yesterdays EE-session I try to put down the problems I have with the job at the moment.
I am not employed but working as a freelancer mainly 2 days a week and at home. Since I always have some kind of blockade when I am in this mood my writing will be a little bumpy I assume.

I started working for her more than a year ago and at the beginning I was very enthusiastic. I came to her via a common friend who recommended me to her for the reason that we both were doing ketogenic diet and it seemed to fit. When I first met her I saw a lot of books on the table that confirmed me that we had something in common. It all started slow, I had no job description, merely talking about the world and how to see it. In a way it was to find out in what way I could be helpful for her, I assume.
Her plan was to open a small shop where she would sell her product (which is a good and helpful one), as well as creating a meeting place for people, something that I always wanted, too. It should be a place to discuss things and so creating a good and helpful energy. At least that was my intention which seemed to go along with her plans to have discussions about problems in medicine or philosophy or even literature (she is a doctor in medicine but did not practice for more than 20 years, mainly focussing on the product she had developed). She also has a trading company that she mainly gets the money from.
It started good at the beginning but then came the lockdown.

I will stop here for a moment in describing the history but telling more of her personality. She seems to be a highly intelligent person, did her medical degree with a left hand ( in German that means very easily), worked in a pharmaceutical area as well as a doctor in a Civil War in Near East and did a lot of other things, with very hard downs in her life, too. She has a very good recognition what is going on in the world, also trying to bring peaceful wording into medicine language (not fighting against the virus i.e. but accepting it as a thing that has been in the world for a long time and we have to arrange with it.) But on the other hand she is a fighter.

My problem now is that I feel I cannot go along with her anymore. It all started when she got the Corona Virus in November (I did not get it, although we were on very close contacts always). She got ill because she was overdoing herself in an extreme way. Not sleeping, traveling, hard working etc. She is a person who obviously never comes to a rest and is very very often at the edge and desperate and emotional down. On the other hand she can be nice, too. Now I assume that is only the case when she needs you. But isn't that normal in business?

When I called her during her illness I got back such an emotional outburst that I obviously quitted internally. She always had her outbursts during these months and normally I can handle those things, although very often I had to recover the next day when I was back home. Very often it was like she talked about her problems, I tried to figure out what could be helpful for her and she was feeling better when she left. For a time this was okay for me, because the job brought me back to being creative again, something I missed during the last years, having ideas, making posters and flyers, talking to people and so on, using my brain again. But at that time it was too much.

I decided over Christmas time to stay at home until January 8, there was no need to be in the shop and I needed time to recover and to think about life. Meanwhile she worked on creating her life stream and when we met again I felt that there was something, that she did not like me any more. She told me very subtile to go back to my old job again. Something that hurts me much. I had supported her through her downs, more acting like a Psychologist. In a way it feels like losing a close relationship and I am sad about that and want to have back that good feelings again we had through all those months of the hard times.

I think I will have to quit that connection, because it damages me. I cannot work with people who when they are upset say things like: "All the elder people should be killed" and always ranting about people who are fat etc.. I also feel that she now wants my brain. If I do not see things the way she does it, she cuts me off, also saying: "Who is not with me, will have to leave!"

It is a little bit difficult, because at the moment I need her laptop to be connected to the internet and also there is another dependency concerning my official living address which I cannot change rapidly.

Today I will go to the shop, probably meeting her and try to find out how it will go on. What bothers me most is that during the last week I lost my "inner light".

On the other hand I had some very heartwarming phone calls with friends to whom I talked about my situation.

I am saying to myself: Be rational, you cannot work there anymore and as always in your life something new will turn up. But it is a little bit hard at the moment and I don't know how to get out safely. because my clearness is gone away and I feel like being lame.

Thank you again for encouraging me to open this thread!!! 🥰 🥰🥰
She says things like "all elders should be killed"? She does not sound like a good person to me.... who would say such a thing? Sounds like an insane person to put it mildly, or very narcissistic
 
I think I will have to quit that connection, because it damages me. I cannot work with people who when they are upset say things like: "All the elder people should be killed" and always ranting about people who are fat etc.. I also feel that she now wants my brain. If I do not see things the way she does it, she cuts me off, also saying: "Who is not with me, will have to leave!"
(Again there was a statement that hurt me: We were talking about the elder people that now are vaccinated and obviously get killed. I told her that I was very happy that my mother (she is now dead) lived such a long time, seeing her great grandchildren and that the great grandchildren could see her great grandmother, how helpful it might be for their live. She disagreed and said it would not have made a difference in her life whether she had seen her grandmother or not. Today I don't see a problem with this but at that time I was a little bit shocked.)
And as a result I am not so much interested in the whole shop and project any more, I merely see it as a job that has to be done - which is certainly a helpful point of view . . .

Her disregard towards human life (more specifically elderly people) is quite startling. I wonder if it comes from a tragic past; or is it maybe simply the result of an utilitarian view of the world. Since we can't always avoid working (interacting) with pathologized people it could perhaps be seen as an opportunity to practice external considering and strategic enclosure.
In any case, taking a step back is indeed gonna be helpful in the long run.
 
The end of the story All's well that ends well.

You will probably be a little surprised when you read this text because it is a little different to my writings before. I think I described her more ore less a heartless person. All the ugly things she said are of course ugly but this is only one side of her, that mostly comes out when she is under terrible pressure - which she was all the time. She run her company nearly alone and since this is or was her main source of income it made her behavior often terrible. I did not mention the good parts in her and I think if you read this statement you can see some good parts of her.

I am not longer working for her but we separated as friends. Of course there were some not so good situations in between. When it came to another outburst of her last summer – she blamed me for something I was not to be blamed for – it was clear that this could not go on any longer. Besides she decided to put her energies more on the internet advertising and for that I am not the right person. I assisted her for a while when she was arranging herself to do that but in the end our cooperation slowly died out.

I sent her my bill in November and was not worried about getting the money. When in February I got a message that she is going to leave the country – meanwhile other companies do that, too – there was just a conflict about that money and the items I still had from her (laptop). A lot to learn for me but in the end we came to a cordially goodbye and had the nice situation as we had many times before. She told me I could keep the laptop as a gift, gave me a lot of her products (which I still am using) and she promised to pay my bill as soon as she will be settled in her new country. And as the person I know her she will do that.

She has now a better situation, found some persons to help her with her business. She surely had a lot on her shoulders and when she can share this burden with others it will soften her behavior because the stress will be reduced. Very often she had told me that she regrets her abrupt and ugly behavior but was not able to act in a different way because her nerves were too shattered.

Although I cannot go on with her in a business manner I still see her as a kind of a friend. She sees what is going on in this world, even now realizes we are heading for an ice age etc.. And there are not so many persons in my life who are aware of that.

So: All's well that ends well.
 
I didn't see your thread until now, sorry:-). I was probably staying long at work back then. I noticed through the years that in every job I do I have at least one superior or boss with whom I don't function well. That person is very dominant, asks too much of you and doesn't do his or her job too well imo. That's one of the reasons I change jobs so often.
I had to admit myself that this is because I have unresloved conflict with my mom who was very dominant but not a good parent. I've read a book this summer The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein (I get HayHouse newsletter, and they ofen have books for 1 $ so I bought this one). In one chapter she mentiones this which confirmed my concerns that I'm dragging this unresolved dynamics into my workplace. I bet many people do this as well, that's why I'm writing this.
This year when I was working as a customer care agent for GB market my lady boss was :lol: I don't want to go into details how she didn't even tell me what I need to do at work or what's my schedule, completely unimportant now. I usually get angry at those incompetent people that shouldn't be at this position at all blablabla but I was tired of going again through the same thing so I was praying to have a better understanding of my boss and the whole situation.
Funny thing is that she got a promotion, yey and she wasn't in my sight but I got sick so I couldn't function well at work at all and I had to quit my job (it's mostly last year's stress that contributed). I never felt so helpless. I couldn't climb stairs to the second flour where my office was, I was so anemic.
I probably went into the state when I was a child and my mom couldn't take care of me properly and I didn't or couldn't allow myself to be so helpless back then so I suppressed it. I was sitting at my desk with this feelings when suddenly I felt someone tap me on my shoulder and squeezed me a bit as a sign of encouragement but there was nobody around!
I also had a dream where I was a teenager and I got home from school and our place was trashed again (because when my parents were arguing they would destroy lots of things, my mom would throw plates and glasses and I would have to clean after them) and I slapped my mom on her leg and told her I'm no longer cleaning her mess.
I don't know what will come out of this but I wanted to share my weird experience. Everything we go through are lessons. I'll finish with a quote from this book.
When you're in alignment with the love of the Universe, peace cannot be disrupted. No person, situation, or circumstance can take away your peace of mind.
 
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